Every year, thousands of tourists pile into game drive vehicles or don their hiking gear and cross South Africa’s nature reserves. Binoculars and cameras at the ready, each hopes for a special encounter with Africa’s wildlife – as small as dwarf mongooses, as mighty as elephants, or as elegant as giraffes.
Blue wildebeest in Somabula Nature Reserve.
Courtesy Bruce Crossey.
Wildlife tourism is an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars globally. The income from tourists is needed to pay for conservation. But a question has been asked: are tourists stressing out the very animals they came to see?
It’s a fair concern. As a researcher who studies wildlife stress responses, I was part of a team who set out to answer this scientifically, not just by watching animals and interpreting their behaviour, but by measuring the animals’ stress-related hormones.
